[RTTY] RBN access; RTTY Spots

[Phil Cooper]

Pete and the group,

I have been watching the RBN cluster with interest for the past few weeks,
and have noticed some distinct issues.

The function of the RBN is to check for calls with CQ in them, and report
these calls.

If I call CQ, I hope to see my own callsign listed, and then be able to
judge where the best propagation is, and thus point my beam to that area.
What I have seen though is loads of calls being spotted that are calling ME.

This is also readily apparent when some juicy DX is on the band, as there
are spots for that call, but also spots for each and every caller to the DX
station.

I was connected to an RBN cluster during the Makrothen contest, and noticed
that my call kept showing up, even though I was calling someone, not calling
CQ.
This led to a bit of confusion for the poor chap I was calling, as some
seemed to think they were calling me.

I also have doubts about using an RBN cluster in a contest, simply because
it populates the bandmap with loads of spurious calls.

There is some argument that it does allow you to see where your call is
being heard, and at what sort of strengths, but this is not useful if your
call gets populated each time you call someone.

For me, the code needs to be tightened up so that it only detects proper CQ
calls, and then it may be of more use.

Having said that, it is a useful feature, and I do enjoy seeing where my
signals get to, so I hope the new venture addresses some of these points.

Thanks for all your efforts, along with those of Alex VE3NEA...

73 de Phil GU0SUP


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